The Role of Mother Tongue in Foreign Language Teaching

Das Thema dieser Arbeit ist der Einfluss der Muttersprache auf den Fremdsprachenunterricht (in diesem Fall Deutsch) in kroatischen Schulen. Das Ziel der Untersuchung war es, die Meinung der kroatischen Lehrer, die Deutsch in den Schulen unterrichten, über den Sprachtransfer zu bekommen,. Die Arbeit ist in zwei Teile aufgegliedert: Der erste Teil basiert auf theoretischen Untersuchungen, wobei ein Überblick der Methoden des Erlernens der deutschen Sprache mit besonderem Schwerpunkt auf die Lage der Muttersprache gegeben wurde. Der zweite Teil ist praktisch und umfasst die Analyse einiger deutscher Lehrbücher sowie die Ergebnisse der Umfrage. Die Umfrage wurde online mit einem offenen Fragebogen durchgeführt. Die Studie umfasste 28 Grund- und HochschullehrerInnen, die in Zadar arbeiten. Welchen Anteil die kroatische Sprache im Unterricht hat, hängt von der Schülergruppe sowie vom Alter und dem Kenntnisstand der deutschen Sprache ab. Sogar 89% der Befragten sind der Meinung, dass die Muttersprache beim Erlernen einer Fremdsprache hilft, während 70% der Befragten der Meinung sind, dass der Fremdsprachenunterricht nicht einsprachig durchgeführt werden sollte.Tema ovog rada je utjecaj materinskog jezika na podučavanje stranog (u ovom slučaju njemačkoga jezika) u hrvatskim školama. Cilj istraživanja je bio provjeriti u kolikoj mjeri hrvatski nastavnici njemačkog jezika koriste njemački jezik u školama i kakvo zapravo mišljenje imaju o jezičnom transferu. Rad je koncipiran u dva dijela: prvi dio se bazira na teoretskom istraživanju, daje se pregled metoda za učenje njemačkoga jezika s posebnim naglaskom na položaj materinskog jezika, zatim se objašnjavaju osnovni pojmovi koji će pomoći pri čitanju rada i provedena istraživanja o utjecaju materinskog jezika na učenje stranog jezika. U drugom, praktičnom dijelu opisuje se metodologija istraživanja i iznose se rezultati istoga. Istraživanje je provedeno online, putem upitnika otvorenog tipa. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 28 osnovnoškolskih i srednjoškolskih nastavnika, koji predaju u Zadru. Važno je napomenuti da nijedan nastavnik nije izjavio kako nikada ne koristi materinski jezik u nastavi. Također količina korištenja hrvatskog jezika u nastavi ovisi o skupini učenika, kao i o njihovoj dobi te stupnju poznavanja njemačkog jezika. Prema tome, istraživanje je pokazalo da postoje razlike u korištenju jezika, no nisu velike. Također je važno napomenuti kako čak 89% ispitanika misli kako materinski jezik pomaže pri usvajanju stranoga, dok 70% ispitanika misli kako se nastava stranog jezika ne bi trebala provoditi samo na jednom jeziku.The theme of this paper is the influence of the native language on teaching foreign (in this case German) in Croatian schools. The aim of the research was to get the opinion of the Croatian teachers, that teach German language in schools, about language transfer. The work is divided into two parts: the first part is based on theoretical research, and gives a review of the methods of learning the German language with special emphasis on the position of the mother tongue, then explaining the basic terms that will help to read the work and in the end the obtained results in the research on the impact of the mother tongue on learning a foreign language. The second part is practical, with the description of the methodology of the research and the results of the same. The survey was conducted online, using an open type questionnaire. The study included 28 elementary and high school teachers, who work in Zadar. It is important to note that no teacher has stated that they never use their mother tongue in teaching. Also, the amount of use of Croatian language in teaching depends on the students' group as well as on their age and the degree of knowledge of the German language. Therefore, research has shown that there are differences in language use, but not any significant ones. It is also important to note that even 89% of respondents think that their mother tongue helps in acquiring a foreign language, while 70% of respondents think that foreign language teaching should not only be conducted in only one language